The Eurozone saw factory orders rise for a fifth consecutive month, as a whole. The most recent Markit Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) shows that the sector has risen to 51.6 from October’s reading of 51.3. The increase is the fastest growth seen within the sector in more than two years. With the PMI survey, any value above 50 indicates that the sector is expanding.
The PMI value is an average for the Eurozone, but data is also available for the individual members of the bloc. In France, the PMI for manufacturing orders fell from 49.1 to 48.4, showing that the sector is contracting at a faster rate. The French data is pretty bleak, marking the 21st consecutive reading showing a contraction within the sector.
Data for Greece showed that the sector continues to contract, but the rate of contraction is the slowest seen since 2009. The Greek economy has been in recession since 2007. Its PMI figure came in at 49.2.
Spain suffered a reversal of orders for its manufacturing activity which had been expanding for the last three months with a November value falling back to 48.6; a six month low.
Despite the better aggregate performance, manufacturing within the Eurozone is still continuing to shed jobs. Markit pointed out that there is a regional variation to the data with the strongest performance coming from northern Eurozone countries such as the Netherlands, Austria and Germany.
As the second largest economy of the bloc, the situation in France is of particular concern. A recent survey showed that the French were more pessimistic about prospects for their economy than those in the rest of the Eurozone were for their’s. French consumer confidence also fell strongly in November which is a concern since domestic expenditure is the main driver of the economy.